The Twitter Diaries: 2009-06-28: Brazil

  • Lynn & I are in Montevideo, transiting to Porto Alegre. Guy took our passports to print boarding passes, hopefully will return with them! #
  • in Montevideo airport, soon to board for Porto Alegre. We already know that our luggage is not with us. Slim chance it got there before us. #
  • @debworks yup, had a change in my carryon, but a few key items are in the still-missing suitcases in reply to debworks #
  • sitting in hotel lobby with wifi, I can get email and use Twitter, but can’t get a browser to work. ??? #
  • @ben so I’d need to get the proxy address? in reply to ben #
  • Twitter is what you do when you can’t get to your blog… First, food. Dinner was strawberry caipirinha, liver salad, carrot/apricot soup… #
  • breakfast was slices of very good mango and papaya, fresh crusty bread. Our bus for the campus tour is late, so we’ll just go on eating… #
  • before dinner, we had to shop for clothing in case our suitcases don’t show up today. 2 luxe malls look much like malls anywhere. #
  • Porto Alegre, at least the parts I’ve seen so far, is cleaner and more elegant than most Italian cities. Architecture mostly concrete. #
  • everyone disclaiming responsibility for getting our suitcases to us. American Airlines #fail Let’s hope American Express can make it happen. #
  • hotel rebooted their router, that has fixed the problem #
  • @alecmuffett sorry to hear it. in reply to alecmuffett #
  • moving 2000 mini soccer balls (with Sun, Glassfish, etc. logos) from bus to Mauricio’s hotel room. Silly photos to follow. #
  • it’s 2:43 am in Porto Alegre, I’ve been awake since 5:30 this morning, trying to trace the bags myself because everyone else is NOT helpful #
  • remind me never to fly American Airlines again. They seem to be far more anxious to avoid responsibility than to help their passengers. #
  • NB i wasn’t tracing bags all day, we were doing an OpenSolaris conference at the University of Santa Cruz do Sul. #
  • hallelujah for good customer service! our corp travel department got an answer out of AA, now we know the bags went to Sao Paolo #
  • lesson: the free AmEx assist svc you get because you’re a cardholder? Not very useful. “We’ll call once a day to try to trace your bags.” #
  • !#$%^#$%^$%^ Clear ceases operations. That’s going to make my traveling life that much more difficult. #
  • Cut off from Twitter yesterday – the uni wifi blocks Twt, YouTube, and Passpack (?!). Show went well, including my extempore talk on video. #
  • hotel offers wifi in lobby, only wired in rooms, but USB/Ethernet for my Air is in the missing luggage. Leeching off a neighbor’s Linksys #
  • @jowyang I don’t always need Clear, but it’s saved me a few times, well worth the price I would have paid to renew it in reply to jowyang #
  • I can has baggage! #
  • @ckoontz Clear was actually a very useful service, at certain times and from certain airports. I had just made up my mind to renew, damnit! in reply to ckoontz #
  • 3 suitcases of expensive equipt, all opened (by customs in Sao Paolo – TSA locks not broken). Amazingly, only casualty 1 iPod. #
  • @willsnow did they get to tell the great story to the right peOple? I really want the world to know what a fantastic job they’ve done. #
  • RT @fschupp: @BigAdmn …. “Will some1 of your crew be @ OSCON?” Some others of us will be glad to represent for our Big friends at OSCON #
  • still figuring out this public speaking gig, but I’m getting a lot of practice this month! #
  • BTW, what sadist came up with the 2-5-2 seating on Boeing 777s? #
  • @SteveEdiger how does that confuse the police? in reply to SteveEdiger #
  • interesting to see how my Italian does and doesn’t help with understanding Portugese. Can understand a lot in writing, less in conversation. #
  • RT @Britopian RT @bobduffy: CIsco says employees own their own brand and followers on Twitter… Also true for Sun. Hard to see it elsewise #
  • turns out I wasn’t supposed to drink the tap water here… Then why did they provide glasses in the bathroom? Oh, well, lose some weight… #
  • had dinner with Aaron and Eduardo. Meat is awfully good here in gaucho country (home of churrasca) – good thing I’m not vegetarian! #
  • up early for the first day of FISL. We’ll all go together in a bus. This is like being on a school trip, but for grownups. With alcohol. #

  • on the very busy #FISL show floor. Aaron & I were interviewed by Radio Software Livre about using video to communicate about open source #
  • installing Flash plugin on the Internet cafe machines #fisl so we can show our Portugese-subtitled videos #
  • 1st day of #fisl winding down. The Sun booth has been thronged with visitors most of the day #
  • #fisl is one of the most frenetic conferences I’ve ever attended, with 1000s of young people eager to learn. Or at least to score a free T. #
  • real Brazlian churrasca – that was probably the best meat I’ve eaten in my life. The caipirinhas didn’t hurt, either. #
  • @Britopian most played song? there are so many… Tonight’s theme song was “The Parting Glass” by the High Kings #soccrm in reply to Britopian #
  • frustrating when an organization which has NO idea how much is said about it in the rest of the world really screws up. (Not Sun) #
  • Charlaine Harris books apparently the same as Laurell Hamilton, only set in Shreveport (?!?) instead of St. Louis. The point being…? #
  • @glynnfoster I’m going to get to taste all this good stuff you keep braggging about, right? in reply to glynnfoster #
  • @glynnfoster I’ll take that as an invitation. ; ) in reply to glynnfoster #
  • @ethang thanks for streaming [our talk at FISL] – wish Id known in time to let people know. in reply to ethang #
  • talk went well, about 100 people, much more than expected since we were up against Peter Sunde of Pirate Bay #
  • very upset that our video subtitles are not working when we have a great opp to show them at FISL #
  • Sun booth thronged with people wanting t-shirts. Should I go help or stay out of the way? #
  • @nonstick for these students, we+re cool! in reply to nonstick #
  • @Crescenzo the getting famous plan requires the cooperation of at least one other person… in reply to Crescenzo #
  • @jowyang in the time and place I went to high school, even land lines were nearly non-existent http://bit.ly/kTJ9L in reply to jowyang #
  • #fisl done for the evening (not that the crowd is leaving…). tomorrow will be even bigger – President Lula will attend! #
  • another exhausting and exhilarating day #fisl. Looking forward to food and cachaça tasting tonight, thanks to our colleague Eduardo. #
  • lost my bit.ly login and their password reminder isn’t working. #$%#% #
  • last night saw O Teatro Mágico – http://bit.ly/A8IuM – wow! Get the music for free (they want you to) here: http://bit.ly/9GYOa #
  • #fisl security for the president’s visit is causing inconveniences #
  • #fisl we are not doing t-shirt madness today – the mob would freak out the security people #
  • #fisl – 4 Sun talks in a row in room 41A, starting with Brian Leonard on Virtual Box at 9. Simon Phipps and the Webmink show at 10. #
  • #fisl if you want t-shirts or soccer balls today, attend Sun talks! We’re not doing giveaways at the booth due to security issues #
  • Brazilians are very creative with names. Best I’ve seen so far #fisl are Chrisnamurth and Darvin #
  • #fisl Today people have to work for their OpenSolaris t-shirts, either installing the OS or attending a talk. Result: crowded booth! #
  • OMFG. I get to film the president. #fisl #
  • #fisl now past security to the vast emptiness of the rest of the show floor (mostly roped off – Sun booth got most of todays traffic) #
  • #fisl Sun has prime real estate today, right where the virtual red carpet turns. #
  • #fisl Running fullscreen Portugese subtitled videos on the Internet cafe machines right along the presidential path. Talk about eyeballs! #
  • #fisl Im one of about 300 people on the show floor, a select much fewer are in the conf room and will speak with him, including Simon Phipps #
  • #fisl a set of uniforms just walked down the ropeway- maybe the pres is on the way, finally #
  • #fisl asked not to get in the way of the press. Sweetie, I AM the press. I represent the non-maintstream media. #
  • #fisl today I wore my bright green I”m Blogging This for Sun t-shirt. didn-t know how appropriate it would be #
  • #fisl our Brazil team fucking ROCKS! Wait til you all see the footage! #
  • #fisl our rockin’ Brazil user group leaders with President Lula: http://bit.ly/eK6zK #
  • multiculturalism gone mad: a Brazilian soap opera set (mostly) in India: Caminho das Índias http://bit.ly/q22c #
  • RT @jimgris: OpenSolaris at FISL w/ Brazil’s President Lula Da Silva. Outrageous! http://bit.ly/19rIvh – yup, them #
  • RT @jimgris: OpenSolaris at FISL w/ Brazil’s President Lula Da Silva. Outrageous! http://bit.ly/19rIvh – yup, them’s our guys. They rock! #
  • have I mentioned that I love Brazil and especially Brazlians? Can I come live here? #
  • didn’t go to the #fisl speaker dinner with 400+ open source luminaries (sorry, Simon!). Too tired to speak coherently. #
  • instead had pizza, wine, and giggles and belly laughs with Lynn & Teresa. #
  • did talk earlier today with Elizabeth Garbee in the speakers’ lounge. What an amazing person. #
  • @DavidHowell very glad to hear that life is good for you! in reply to DavidHowell #
  • okay, need to wake up enough to run some useful Omniture stats for the boss. #
  • last day of #fisl, even longer than the others. <groan> All the activity in the Sun booth is great, but exhausting for the staff. #
  • @ceri what have you guys been doing with WOSUG? (I think you’re the right person to ask about this…) – page views through the roof! #
  • #fisl schwag score – very cute Firefox t-shirts! (it helps to have something to trade) #
  • Waiting for #fisl closing ceremony to end. Don’t understand it and I’m hungry! #

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Best Souvenir EVAH

I’m very proud of this: palestrante means speaker. FISL (this is the 10th edition) is one of the world’s largest open source conferences. The little orange button is important: PR stands for PRESIDENT. Which means I got to be one of the 300 people on the show floor when Brazil’s President Lula came to call, and was able to get pretty up close and personal among the mob. Video here.

Hurry Up!

Yesterday we were in Santa Cruz do Sul, RS, Brazil, for a student conference on OpenSolaris. We had some time in the afternoon to sight-see (then were working again from 6-10 pm), including a walk to the cathedral.

Along the way we were highly amused by this animated crossing signal, which Jogo told us was manufactured, along with some other experimental traffic control systems, in a nearby town.

The soundtrack was provided by a car cruising the neighborhood with a loudspeaker on top, advertising something.

The Twitter Diaries: 2009-06-21: Chicago, CO

  • @AmberCadabra I’m guessing you’re getting a lot of ROI questions. What’s your answer? in reply to AmberCadabra #
  • @travelocity bait and switch? Twice started looking at flights MIL-AUS at $1217, twice arrived at “We’re sorry, price changed” – by $300! in reply to travelocity #
  • @EnricCirne wd be interesting to know: had you heard of Gaiman before you started following? why do you follow him? in reply to EnricCirne #
  • comparing flight prices in realtime via Skype with Enrico back in Italy. BA.com = exactly the same. Unfortunately, also expensive. #
  • @timbray re Iran motorcycle cops footage, give me a link – I can translate the Italian for you #iranelection in reply to timbray #
  • I’d really like to hear from someone who knows Farsi – what are they saying? http://bit.ly/ZD54P #
  • “the crowd found isolated policemen, now THEY’RE getting beat up” “They got him, there’s risk of a lynching” http://bit.ly/CBWVS #
  • http://bit.ly/CBWVS – shots of burning motorcycle, speaks of “the 1st victim,” not clear if that refers to the policeman or the motorcycle #
  • oh, no, there’s the policeman – bruised but not much #
  • not clear who’s doing the footage in Italian. No TV logos on it, tho the style seems pretty typical of an Italian TV commentator #
  • it did come from Italian news crews, see more on http://bit.ly/9C5Yv Italian journos apparently still there, tho some got beat up #
  • RT @DeirdreS: #iranelection http://bit.ly/9C5Yv Italian journos apparently still there, tho some got beat up #
  • LOL! Google ad on this morning’s Producing Social Media post is for Zmanda! http://bit.ly/1194h9 #
  • raining hard, seems to have got in the habit here every afternoon. And my flight for Chicago leaves at what time tomorrow…? #
  • <groan> Berlusconi says “I’m going to Obama nice and tanned.” Gaffe compounded. #
  • @darrinschaos waiting til D Day to see whether I can afford that much camera. ; ) in reply to darrinschaos #
  • ack! looking over my tweeple, connected to a site that first played music, then asked me to take a questionnaire, then gave another popup… #
  • still wishing for a “why I’m following you” on Twt. Baffled by many of my followers. Travel & food categories obvious enough, but some…? #
  • @Roam2Rome suspect that generational shift holds in many countries. But it’s always a mistake to assume older people aren’t interested. in reply to Roam2Rome #
  • is there a way to allow anyone to DM me whether I’m following them or not? #
  • RT @scottycline: New proxy server is up 4any protesters who need it. IP is 69.92.182.124 por … #
  • now that I look at who’s following me (slowly), it would be useful if follow notifications worked anymore. Some v interesting new folks #
  • just heard today that there’s going to be a TED India. Massive cool. Wish I could be there. Hmm. Must think… #
  • some neighbor’s yappy little dog has woken me up at 6:30 and 7:30 am, then again when I was trying to nap this afternoon. KILL KILL KILL #
  • @CommunispaceCEO the catch for social media experts is to distinguish themselves from those who merely claim to be social media experts in reply to CommunispaceCEO #
  • @Roam2Rome re clothing, sometimes I like to fit in, others I like to mix it up. I am convinced that Indian clothing looks great everywhere in reply to Roam2Rome #
  • “lat or par meaning being beaten to the verge of death.” how scary is it that Farsi has 2 words for “beaten to the verge of death” ? #
  • @ThinGuy mine, too, interpreted “get all that stuff off the floor” as “throw it all in the laundry basket” in reply to ThinGuy #
  • burst of creativity on the preso was soon over. I’m gonna be one of those speakers who submits slides at the very… last… minute… #
  • Woman on airport pkg shuttle saw a huge funnel cloud s of denver. While the van radio is playing “somewhere over the rainbow”. #
  • @algore why do
    You want more followers? You hardly tweet. in reply to algore #
  • United’s freq flyer program is too old. Half the passengers on every flight use the red carpet. It ain’t special anymore. #
  • @ThinGuy today’s flight us den to chi. So they get me coming and going. I’m platinum for lift on klm, much good it does me in reply to ThinGuy #
  • @Shamu arrived ohare. Noticed there’s A graveyard next to the runway in reply to Shamu #
  • @jdlasica In NYC, what will you do that isn’t mass transit? it’s the only kind that makes sense there in reply to jdlasica #
  • So this is Chicago. Cta train into the city. I’m a public transport kinda gal #
  • This Chicago hotel has, of all things, a British pub. Magner’s cider, bangers and mash for dinner! #
  • Kinda freAked that my room has no windows, only skylights. Maybe I’ll like that in daylight #
  • time to iron. It’s been a while since I attended a conference that wasn’t all geeks in t-shirts and jeans. Wearing an actual suit jacket… #
  • @sfoskett Nope, this is the Club Quarters. I had bangers and mash. Stomach a bit delicate today… in reply to sfoskett #
  • @ThinGuy better to go with a younger airline where people haven’t had so much time to build up the mileage. Make ’em want you! in reply to ThinGuy #
  • @jeffreytaylor @missbhavens we have to find a time and place for all THREE of us to meet. I suspect it will be an epic occasion! #
  • @dave_enz Haven’t heard “tidy casual” before. Non-ragged jeans and a collared shirt? We’ve been warned FISL is t-shirts, layered for cold in reply to dave_enz #
  • @bubbva I’ve barely been to Chicago before. I think I was sick last time I came here, too. Not Chicago’s fault. Hope to get out tomw night in reply to bubbva #
  • Learning a lot at this conf but can’t tweet it for lack of bandwidth #
  • conosco Stefano Maffulli? sembra che saremo ad una conferenza assieme… #
  • @missbhavens @jeffreytaylor yup, when he said “Disneyland for adults”, New Orleans immediately came to mind. I may be there mid-Oct in reply to missbhavens #
  • @reiger when? in reply to reiger #
  • @stacylwilson ah, now I recognize you on Twitter! Your icon photo doesn’t do you justice. #
  • @ElaineEllis you’re in Chicago? So am I! in reply to ElaineEllis #
  • @debworks hi! #
  • @lskrocki hearing good things about you from a fellow speaker/attendee at #commtell09 in reply to lskrocki #
  • why I wanted my daughter out of Italy http://bit.ly/zGcRu #
  • RT @monkchips: very very very funny. Jim just showed us the ayePod… one for the scots. @9600? http://bit.ly/101DoQ LOL of the day! #
  • @koolinus I gave Italy 17 years. It just got too hard for a middle-aged foreign woman to have a professional hi-tech career there. in reply to koolinus #
  • #commtell09 Gallup relies on a robust social network with deep profiles to be able to quickly tap employee expertise worldwide. #
  • BTW, if you’re interested in Sun-related video (mostly very technical talks), I aggregate “my” stuff at http://bit.ly/19B0bm #
  • reminder: Are you a student interested in high-performance computing? If so: it’s PARTY TIME! http://isc09studentparty.eventbrite.com/ #
  • @koolinus I know. And I feel deeply for all the bright, talented young people I’ve met in Italy who deserve so much better. in reply to koolinus #
  • @jdlasica less than 1 mo, actually http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23ohac – was May 31st, tweets all gone already MAJOR FAIL #140conf in reply to jdlasica #
  • Hearing social media war stories from other companies points up how very unusual Sun is in this: http://bit.ly/16ijZh #
  • read #commtell09 later today to see live tweets on my preso about employee video. (Being on the receiving end may be scary – my first time!) #
  • @u8out not sure I get the intersect between CRM and social networks. Let me know how it is – I’ll be traveling that day in reply to u8out #
  • @koolinus as in Sunnis, about Iran? in reply to koolinus #
  • RT @lordorica: SAP embedding twitter into their CRM software, so companies can support customers who report problems via their social nets #
  • @koolinus me la mandi? in reply to koolinus #
  • cool, all companies should do this, maybe include staff lists AT&T – Social Media http://bit.ly/PK7aE #
  • Facebook allows marketers to do incredibly targeted ads. So why do I keep getting stupendously irrelevant ones? #
  • Bought a romance novel (a genre I never read) because there’s a Deirdre in the title. So the unsuitable suitor is… a mathematician. #
  • @sumaya “how are you” is easy because most of the time people don’t expect a real answer. “where are you from?” is hard. in reply to sumaya #
  • note to self: become italian prime minister RT @StephenAtHome couldn’t be worse than Berlusca, and at least you have a real sense of humor in reply to StephenAtHome #
  • @Padmasreewas interested to learn at #commtell09 about Cisco’s social media activities, internal & external. We think alike. ; ) #
  • @timfoster nor any language I’ve ever heard of, at least in that useage in reply to timfoster #
  • didn’t get home til after midnight, but woke up at 6 am as usual, in the office before 8. Now very tired. #
  • Silvio Berlusconi and the press: Language problems | The Economist http://bit.ly/Q4175 #
  • watching #Chess in Concert. I’ve waited 25 years to see a decent production of this show. So far, so good, tho changed from the 84 version #
  • #Chess Adam Pascal is no Murray Head. Idina almost comes up to Elaine Page, but… we’ll see on the hard songs. #
  • #Chess Kerry Ellis singing “Someone Else’s Story” (which I hadn’t heard before) was worth the price of admission. #
  • wild lightning out there #
  • wishing I was with my vlogging peeps in NYC. But I must admit that going to Brazil Saturday doesn’t suck. At all. #
  • Boss says “I hope we find time to talk.” Well, we’ve got a 24-hour trip together to start with… good thing we like each other. #
  • @seancarlos how about people married to Americans? in reply to seancarlos #
  • final day in the office before being away until July 27th. Making sure I get all the bits & pieces of info & equipment I need to bring. #
  • @jeffreytaylor wd be helpful if there was something on the stream to tell me who’s talking #openvideo in reply to jeffreytaylor #
  • registered for OSCON (gee, that’s a whole month away!) #
  • Jon Stewart takes on Berlusconi – priceless! http://bit.ly/10xb8L #
  • RT @oracletechnet: James Gosling on life post-Oracle http://bit.ly/7FGzd (from EWeek) #
  • Gosling: There is Life for Java After Oracle-Sun Buyout “Sun is now a viral body in a strange host.” http://bit.ly/2mtTqc #
  • I’m about to be out of the office for almost 6 weeks. What am I forgetting? #
  • woke up at 5:30, but that’s good since I’ll have to spring fwd 3 hours for Porto Alegre – then back 15 for Auckland. Jet lag hell coming up. #
  • @templedf good luck with the festivities in Hamburg. Sorry I can’t be in two places at once! in reply to templedf #
  • Berlusconi pays “image girl” 10,000 euros to party with him [in Italian] http://bit.ly/2PXtpJ #
  • @AmberCadabra you waited way too long. Massage is one of the best things you can do for yourself. Or, rather, have done to you. in reply to AmberCadabra #
  • farming out a lot of my video editing backlog so that, in this next month while I’m traveling, I can concentrate on writing. So much to do! #
  • another Berlusca girl – who went well beyond “image” – was paid in “help in having a residence built” [in Italian] http://bit.ly/u7MGR #
  • On my way to dia. I love almost any kind of travel and do a lot of it, but this is a BIG trip even by my standards. Whee! #
  • @jeffreytaylor tell mike I say hi, when you get the chance in reply to jeffreytaylor #
  • Very easy exchange rate for Brazil. #
  • Flight to sao paolo canceled. We’ll probably be 24 hrs late #
  • Flight to sao paolo canceled. American airlines handling this very badly. 90 minutes in line already #
  • Finally on our 2nd flight, destination Buenos Aires. Not our original destination, but we’ll get there #

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Deirdré Straughan on Italy, India, the Internet, the world, and now Australia